Posted 2 years ago on Jan. 24, 2014, 11:33 p.m. EST by go4broke
(120)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Recently it was brought to my attention that there are people who are trying hard to co-opt Occupy for nefarious reasons. I usually don't read most of the links that this poster puts up, but I'm glad I read this one (and I went on to read several more concerning the same subject) which as you can see from the title is about infiltration of the Occupy movement. And it isn't that I was unaware that this was going on, it's just it reminded me of how prevalent it is.

"As Part II of this discussion will show, infiltration is the norm in political movements in the United States. Occupy has many opponents likely to infiltrate to divide and destroy it beyond the usual law enforcement apparatus. Other detractors include the corporations whose rule Occupy seeks to end; conservative right-wing groups allied with corporate interests; and members of the power structure including nonprofit oganizations linked with corporate-funded political parties, especially the Democratic Party, which would like Occupy to be its tea party rather than an independent movement critiical of both parties."...my emphasis

..."Some may wonder why Democrats or groups closely affiliated with the Democrats, such as MoveOn.org, Campaign for America's Future, Rebuild the Dream or unions like the SEIU, would want to infiltrate Occupy. (Note: Indviduals who are Democrats or members of a union, MoveOn or other groups are not the same as the leadershiip). Essentially, leaders of these groups see Occupy as the Democrats potential answer to the tea party. Occupiers do not see themselves that way, but these movements want them to adopt their strategy of working within the Democratic Party."

Instead Occupiers want to "build an independent movement to challenge the corrupt system." This... while the infiltrators make excuses for the Democrats who have betrayed us. And some of the infiltrators like Van Jones of Rebuild The Dream even position themselves as Occupy spokespersons adopting the Occupy lingo, and doing their best to drag Occupy into the Democratic Party where it will join the corrupt duopoly and become spineless. This infiltration also extends into social media, facebook pages, etc.!....my emphasis & my words

"Infiltration has been common in political movements for centuries, as have divisive methods, attacks on leaders, escalation of tactics, fight over money and misinformation disseminated to the public." Some of those methods include character assasination, e.g, "I know you are a liar," and anger along with profanity aimed at anyone who disagrees with their partisan agenda. These kind of attacks are usually reserved for those who are most recalcitrant to the attempted co-option of Occupy, and they are usually repeated over and over and over again without being elaborated on, with the idea that if they say it enough, it will become true in the minds of others, and also to keep the target of their assault on the defensive. It is a very common tactic to defame someone who wants systemic change in the hopes of ostracizing that person and to cause turmoil within the movement, and it has been used by the corrupt elite, including those political parties and their minions who keep them in power for eons in the hope of retaining the power of the corrupt status quo....my emphasis & words again

Edit;, 5:30 pm, 1/25/14 - From the early mixed reaction I have gotten from my thread, I realized that it was incomplete so I would like to add the below comment which is based on my research and experience.

Some of the people who would like to co-opt Occupy (Democrats mostly from what I can see) have a real penchant to lump people whose ideals are very close to Occupy's .....with right-wing zealots and groups, who like some Democrats are trying to destroy this movement, by besmirching Occupiers with all sorts nasty names and innuendos in trying to link the two.

From disingenuously lumping these two very adversarial groups together, the co-opters want people to come away with the false and foolish notion that they, the Democrats in most cases, and ONLY THEY are the true Occupiers and hence viable alternative to the corrupt system we now have.. End of Edit

Although I have somewhat of an adversarial relationship with the poster who originally put this link up, I would like to thank him for doing so.

Thanks, that was a very informative link on how we can become co-opted or crushed by the corrupt elite and how we can combat it. And in particular for me it provides more valuable insight on the MO of the neocon elite's minions who are intent at embedding this movement in one of the two parties in the duopoly.

many sympathetic with occupy have often labeled as rightist Koch whores, ....

a spectrum of ideas and thought made the site more informative, once, the debates more engaged and enlightening, but soon, with the presidential election, the democratic sympathizers seemed to become a majority on this site, as the lesser evil argument was powerful, and the shrils became more subtle

Iinfighting of people who mostly agree on most big issues, and the name calling, and repeated lies, gets old fast here, and has driven many away.

But this site has little to do with occupy, as one has always been pointed out, it is a shadow of occupy, and an important light to finding non mainstream media and non corporate propaganda.

Shining a light on Monsanto,on coal trains, and oil polluters, on phone metadata gatherers, on Koch machinery, on banksters, these issues go beyond party loyalties and unite good thinking Americans.

Yes one party is worse than the other, by 10 times,

But we should seek for common ground where possible, and not be cooped by any party, obviously.

Eventually occupy concerns will become common sense of a majority, it was in the beginning, and that is why it was quashed by Obama, and the power elites

The NYCGA and other general assemblies were mostly infiltrated by Democrats. Nowadays, they shamelessly use the Occupy name for their groups and campaigns. We called them the DDs when we saw them arrive at general assemblies: Despicable Democrats.

I agree with your comments with the obvious exception in saying that there are a lot of good Democrats who simply do not understand what has and continues to go on, namely their selling out of the people for $pecial interests. They in many instances were us before our awakening. The Democrats who have set their sights on co-opting Occupy though are the apologists who know better, but have an agenda to carry out.

Top 45 Lies in Obama's Speech at the UN

You are a welcome new addition and I hope you to stay as there are a lot of good people here who appreciate you being kindred spirit, but you will have to learn to play hard-ball as you can see. So I urge you to do so without getting in the gutter with them.

I will answer some of my less supportive comments ;-) later as I have stuff to do today. "DD", I like that.

Hey friend, I don't come here to fight. I didn't know what "where" you were talking about. I commented about the NYCGA, not this website. I'm not interested in having a convo with someone who calls me "daft". Since I joined Occupy, my #1 rule has been - create a community and foster understanding even through disagreements. Insults are for children, not occupiers. Bye my friend.

I haven't seen co-option attempts by the right. I don't think it would be possible really. The right wing are too different from basic Occupy concepts. They couldn't fool anyone. What I have seen from the right is the attempt to insult Occupy, to make us look like fools. They tried to ruin our image in the mass media by making us look like uncleaned hippies.

The Democrats are an entirely different animal. Republicans know what they want, they just want something really dumb - really to the right. Democrats know what they want, but don't realize the Democrat party will never give that to them. Democrats are often deluded. They think Obama cares about the people, that he's a socialist, etc... They basically think Democrats are very similar to Occupy in ideology. They really are not. Democrats are 1%ers who just want to make money and gain power.

That's why the democrats are a danger for co-option, but the right really isn't. Some people remain fooled to this day in thinking that Obama is a socialist. He's a right winger.

I'm sorry, I have not seen right wingers try to or take control of Occupy. I have seen them insult Occupy, but not try to take control of it. I have seen Democrats try to take over the NYCGA and other general assemblies, and have seen some Democrat groups use the term Occupy to make their campaigns.

You seem obsessed with protecting the Democrats from criticism? Do you not agree that Obama and his friends are part of the 1%?

Please try to use a nicer tone, or I will have to stop our exchange. You seem vindictive for some reason. We can agree to disagree. No need to get angry or to insult an occupier who does not see things your way. I'm not sure why you insinuate that I have some bad intentions. I do not. Just learning and exchanging ideas.

Don't call other occupiers "idiot". We gotta stick together. We don't have to think the same to avoid insults. Great minds can accept and tolerate differences without insulting them. If you have to insult someone, insult Democrats, not occupiers. Come on man!

Both the Democrats and the Republicans have "that tenuous grasp on the reins of power". In fact, since OWS started, the Democrats have had a tighter grip on power. OWS as always fought against a Democrat White House after all.

The Democrats are not closely aligned to OWS at all. Very different philosophies. The Democrats are much more closely aligned with the Republicans than with OWS.

Anyways, we have seen countless times how dangerous the Democrats can be as an infiltrator of Occupy. There are some groups on Facebook who use the Occupy name to further their Democrat agendas. A real shame.

We're both OWS supporters, so I guess we can both agree that the Democrats and the Republicans are both really bad.

I remember well. At the NYCGA, the Democrats tried to co-opt us while the Rebuplicans tried to make us look bad in the media. From my experience, the Democrats are the most dangerous. The Republicans know they have no chance to co-opt us so they just spit on us. Unfortunately, many occupiers are confused about the Democrats. They confuse them with socialists and generally good people.They are the more sneaky 1%.